The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Study: Lyme disease treatments surging
Medical services to people suffering from Lyme disease jumped 185 percent in rural areas and 40 percent in urban areas nationwide over a nine-year period, according to new research from a national nonprofit.
Local experts said this could be one of the worst summers ever for tick-borne diseases such as Lyme.
FAIR Health, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing transparency to health care costs and insurance information, examined its database of more than 23 billion privately billed health care
claims, and tracked lines (or medical codes) associated with Lyme disease in health insurance claims between 2007 and 2016. The study found big jumps in the number of claims and distinct differences based on where people were living.
More people are seeking medical treatment for Lyme, FAIR Health President Robin Gelburd said, pointing to a greater awareness of the illness, its causes and symptoms.
“Consumers are likely reaching out for services because more information is being disseminated,” Gelburd said. “Plus there are more people insured, so more people are able to seek out and use these services.”
Another possible reason, Gelburd said, is Lyme disease has become more common over the years.
Born in Connecticut
Lyme disease is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected blacklegged ticks, and associated with the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. The illness is treatable with antibiotics, but some patients develop long-term symptoms post-treatment, such as fatigue, muscle and joint pain and cognitive issues.
The illness is named for the town of Lyme, where the disease was recognized in 1975.
Gelburd said the purpose of the FAIR Health study was to provide some context to what seems to be a growing health problem.
“Lyme of late has been such a hot topic,” she said. “We thought, this is an opportunity to provide some information and some texture.”
The FAIR Health research indicated the geography of Lyme disease is shifting, but Connecticut is still a major hot spot. According to FAIR Health, in 2007, Lyme disease-related claim lines were highest in the Northeast. The top states were New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York.
But, in 2016, the top states were Rhode Island, New Jersey, Connecticut, North Carolina and New York — with the emergence of North Carolina showing the illness could be spreading to the South.
“I think one of the biggest surprises was the shift in geography,” Gelburd said. “We are seeing a spread in services rendered (to those with Lyme disease) into other areas of the country.”
Fears of bad summer and fall
In Connecticut, experts said they’ve seen a surge in ticks and tickborne diseases. In the first six months of this year, roughly 5,000 ticks were brought to the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven for Lyme-disease testing, said Goudarz Molaei, who runs the station’s tick testing laboratory. Typically, Molaei said, the station receives about 3,000 ticks for testing in an entire year.
“The prediction is that, as long as we have short, warm winters and long springs and summer, the tick problem will stay with us,” Molaei said.
More disturbing than the explosion in tick population, Molaei said, is an average of 38 percent of the ticks are testing positive for Lyme disease. Over the past five years to six years, he said, only about 27 percent to 28 percent of ticks tested positive for the illness.
The increasing number of ticks is being reflected at some area hospitals, particularly Bridgeport Hospital.
“This could be one of our worst summers ever” for tick-borne diseases, said Dr. Zane Saul, chief of infectious diseases at the hospital.
He said he has noticed a stark increase in these illnesses, including not just Lyme disease, but babesiosis and other tickcaused disease. Though the summer tick season is past its peak, another peak is expected in October, and Saul worries what the coming months could hold.
“The season continues into November and, if doesn’t get really cold, it could go farther than that,” Saul said.